Thursday, May 20, 2010

Chronicles Of Overdesign

(Image via Telegraph UK)

I enthused recently here about China's adorable mascot for their World Expo thingee, and now we have new spokesmodels to contemplate: those for the UK Olympics.

Yes, they are creepy and disturbing, but more importantly, they are a hot mess. This article at the Telegraph shows why: they have been pumped full of just too much meaning. OMG, it's like every part of them is significant, resulting in unholy chimaeras nobody will love.

I forgot about Cobi. He has two eyes a nose and a mouth, which is a big plus for me.

Striker was the mascot of the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. I bought several pins with Striker carrying large flags from the different competing countries. He looked a little like Augie Doggie, which is not a minus in my book.

My favorite comment from the linked story is..."So according to the much reported "shag bands" sported by the two, Wenlock offers; "Sex", "Oral Sex" and "Hugs" although the much more frigid Mandeville will only "Flash body parts"... HA!

I was in the middle of the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 (the University of Utah was ground zero total security--we're talking steely eyed guys with machine guns-zone). The mascots then were Powder, a snowshoe hare, Copper, a coyote, and Coal, a black bear, as seen below:

http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/symbols/mascots/n214068252.shtml

Some wag at the time said they should have all had cross hairs on them because they are all legal to murder in Utah.